Mixing method and apparatus



Feb. 24, 1942. G. w. NEWTON 2,274,245

MIXING METHOD AND APPARATUS Original Filed July 5, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 1#MMA Feb. 24, 1942. G. w. NEWTON MIXING vMETHOD AND APPARATUS originalFiled July 5,v 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 @mw Am Mhmm Patented Feb. 24, 1942MIXING;r METHOD AND APPARATUS George W. Newton, Baltimore, Md., assignorto Crown Cork & Seal Company, Inc., Baltimore, Md., a corporation of NewYork Original application July 5, `1939, Serial No. 282,871. Divided andthis application August 30, 1940, Serial No. 354,881

3 Claims.

usual to first Vow a quantity of syrup into the bottle or othercontainer, and to then ll the remainder of the container with carbonatedwater.

Machines have heretofore been developed and used for mixing therelatively heavy syrup with i the upper strata of carbonated water.However, such prior machines are not altogether satisfactory undercertain conditions, due to the fact that the bottles are moved somewhattoo vigorously during the mixing process, with theresult that foaming ofthe contents occurs and continues for some moments after the mixingaction t is completed.

The particular condition 'under which such foaming is most objectionableis in plants where light sensitive inspecting `mechanisms are used toscan the bottle for the purpose of ascertaining Whether any foreignmatter is present in its contents. One widely used inspection machinerotates the bottles, kand then holds it against rotation as its contentscontinue to rotate, and While `the bottle is moving past a photoelectriccell. By this `arrangement the entire contents of the 4bottle are slowlyswirled in front of the photoeleotric cell. In order to be completelyeffective inv detecting extremely nsmall fragments of foreign matter inthe bottle contents, the inspection mechanism must be so sensitive tothe passage` of light through they bottle that it will `respond to thedifferences in light transmission resulting from the movement of foambubbles through the beverage and may discard such bottles, causing anentirely unnecessary waste. More particularly, foam. bubbles in theliquid cause the inspection machine to reject the bottle and foambubbles which collect on the upper surface of the liquid in the bottleare drawn down into the vortex or meniscus that is formed by the liquid,making it impossible to properly inspect for floating particles offoreign matter.

An important obiectof the present invention is to provide a mixingapparatus and method which will thoroughly mix the contents of acontainer and, more particularly, will thoroughly mix all syrup in, acarbonated beverage, corr-k tainer with the carbonated water withoutundesirable and continuing foaming of the contents.

Another object of the present invention is to minimize the possibilitiesof foaming `of a carbonated beverage during a mixing operation.

It has been found that a basic reason for the ilow of bubbles throughthe liquid during mixing is the fact that the head space of the sealedcontainer is filled with air or gas at substantially atmosphericpressure while theliquid contents contain gas in solution and under amuch higher pressure. When the container is bodily moved during themixing process, the gas in solution immediately moves to the lowpressure area, and as this area moves about in the bottle due to themovement of the bottle, the foam bubbles go through a marked movement.Such movement, as indicated above, may continue until sometime afterbodily movement of the bottle has ceased and may thereby `affect theinspection machine.

The present invention contemplates creating a pressure condition in thecontainer head space `as by agitating the container contents prior totilting or inverting. This agitation is preferably effectedby tappingthe bottle or subjecting it to a blow of suiiicient force to cause gasin solution in the liquid to rise into the container head space so thatthis space, previously lled with air or gas at atmospheric pressure,will be lled with gas at substantially the same pressure as that of thegas in solution. Such agitation of the bottle contents must be performedafter the container has been sealed and the most satisfactory resultsare obtained by performing this agitating step a few moments prior tothe mixing operation. For example, the agitation to cause rise of gasinto the container head space can be performed immediately after thebottle has been sealed, and While at least the upper portion of thewater in the bottle is free of syrup and hence has a low surfacetension, so that gas will have va full opportunity to quickly rise fromthe bottle contents prior to such bodily movement of the b-ottle as willcause flow of its contents within the bottle. i

The agitation of the container contents referred to above may obviouslybe used with mixing methods and apparatus other than those disclosed inthe present application.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thefollowing specification and drawings, wherein: y

Figure l is a plan view of the outfeed portion of a filling machine anda portion of a mixing machine 4constructed in accordance with thepresent invention. In this view the super-structures of the two machinesare omitted.

Figure 2 is a vertical central sectional view through the mixingapparatus on a line extending from front to rear of the machine, and

Figure 3 is a detail vertical sectional view on the line 3-3 of Figure1.

Referring to Figure 1, the numeral |36 designates the outfeed portion ofa beverage filling machine including the usual transfer dial ||9 whichmoves filled bottles B containing a lower layer of syrup and an upperbody of carbonated Water from a rotary filling table, not shown, to thedial 260 which is beneath and associated with the crowning mechanism ofthe lling machine. After the bottles have been crowned and therebysealed, they are engaged by the usual outfeed dial |35 which moves themto the straight-line outfeed conveyor |35a of the filling machine. Fromthis conveyor they move to the infeed conveyor |44 of the mixingapparatus |20.

Mixing apparatus |29 is of the type disclosed in my above-mentionedoriginal application, Serial No. 282,871. Such mixing apparatus may begenerally described in connection with Figure 2 as comprising astationary base portion |2| having a fixed post |22 extending upwardlyfrom its rearward portion and on which a table |23 is mounted forrotation by any suitable drive means. Table |23 is provided with aplurality of upstanding housings |24 spaced about its periphery andhaving horizontal shafts |25 journalled in their upper ends. Each shaft|25 carries a container supporting element or device |26 including abase portion |16 having a bottle platform |32 rotatable therein. Eachelement |26 also includes a reciprocable upper and clamping arm or head|98 having a rotatable portion adapted to engage the cap of thecontainer so that the clamped container can rotate with platform |32.The shafts |25 are adapted to be rotated to move the elements |26radially of table |23, all as described in said original application.

As a container supporting element |26 rotates past the stationary fronttable |20a, a bottle will be placed upon the platform |32 of thatcontainer support as shown at the left of Figure 2 by an infeed dial |4|which has received the bottle from the infeed conveyor |44.

As is fully disclosed in said original applioation, the clamping head|98 of the bottle support |26 will be raised during the insertion of thebottle but will immediately descend to rmly clamp the bottle upon thebottle platform |32. Subsequently, the bottle will be turned to theinverted position shown at the right of Figure 2 so that the bottleplatform |32 which is rotatable in the supporting element |26.willcontact with a continuously moving belt |33 driven by a motor assembly226, belt |33 being mounted to pass about a wheel 224 journalled on theupper portion of post |22. As a result, the bottle will be spun whileinverted and while the rotary table v|23 is moving through approximatelyhalf a revolution. Before the bottle supporting element |26 againapproaches the front table |29a, the supporting element |26 will beturned radially with shaft |25 to restore the bottle to uprightposition, the clamping arm |98 will lift to the position shown at theleft of Figure 2, and the bottle will be removed from the bottlesupporting platform |32 by the outfeed dial |42.

As best shown in Figures 1 and 3, a tapping arm |34 is secured in acollar 25|! which is rotatable upon a stud 25| secured in the guideplate 252 which surrounds the outfeed dial |35 of the filling machine|36. A coil spring 253 has its upper end secured in the underside of thecollar 250, while its lower end is fixed in the lower and headed end 254of the stationary stud 25|. The tapping arm |34 extends through a slot255 formed in the depending skirt 256 of the guide plate 252 so that itsouter end is in the path of movement of bottles moving about the outfeeddial |35. In operation, a bottle moving in one of the pockets of theoutfeed dial |35 will swing the tapping arm |34 against the action ofspring 253 from the solid line position of Figure 1 to the dotted lineposition of the same view. When the bottle has then moved past the endof the tapping arm, the latter will be swung backwardly by the spring253 to strike the succeeding bottle so as to agitate the contents of thebottle and cause gas to be released from the carbonated liquid thereinand to rise into the head space to create a pressure condition withinthe head space approximating the pressure of the gas in solution in thecarbonated liquid.

The tension of the spring 253 may be adjusted by rotating the stud 25|and locking it in adjusted position by the lock nut illustrated inFigure 3.

The position of the tapping arm |34 may be varied from that illustratedin Figure 1, that is, the tapping arm may be positioned at a pointcloser to the crowning mechanism dial 260, or it may be placed at somepoint closer to the mixing apparatus. However, the tapping arm |34should be positioned at a su'icient distance in advance of the mixingapparatus that the rise of gas resulting from agitation of the bottlecontents by the tapping arm will be completed prior to the movement ofthe bottle onto a bottle supporting platform |26 of the mixingapparatus.

As has been stated above, the tapping operation just described is ofconsiderable efficacy in preventing undue foaming of a carbonated liquidduring the bodily movement of a bottle which occurs during a mixingprocess because, as hereinbefore stated, it increases the pressure inthe container head space, and thereby minimizes the rise of foam bubblesduring the mixing operation, and further insures that there will be nocontinuing rising of foam bubbles occurring during the movement of thebottle through an inspection machine.

It will be observed that by the above structure and method the contentsof a bottle will be agitated and the head space pressure increasedbefore mixing by bodily movement of the container. Obviously, the mixerwhich can be used adjacent the tapping mechanism is not limited to thatdisclosed in the drawings.

It will be understood that the terminology used in the specification isfor the purpose of description alone, the scope of the invention beingindicated by the claims.

I claim:

1. The method of mixing the contents of a closed container havingtherein a lower strata of syrup, a superposed body of carbonated waterand with the headspace filled with a gaseous fluid at substantiallyatmospheric pressure, comprising subjecting the container to a blowwhile the latter is upright and the syrup is not mingled with the upperportion of the body of water so that the `surface tension of the wateris at a minimum, the blow being of sufcient force to cause a portion ofthe gas in the carbonated water to bubble to the surface of the water toestablish a higher pressure in the container headspace. n

2. The method of mixing they contents of a closed container havingtherein a lower strata of syrup, a superposed body of carbonated waterand with the headspace lled with a gaseous uid at substantiallyatmospheric pressure, comprising subjecting the container to a blowwhile the latter is upright and the syrup is not mingled with the upperportion of the body of water so that the surface tension of the water isat a mini` mum, the blow being of suicient force to cause a n portion ofthe gas in the carbonated water to 3. In combination, means to ll acontainer with a lower layer of syrup and a superposed body ofcarbonated water with the upper portion of the water free of syrup tohave a low surface tension, means to seal the container in the openatmosphere so that its headspace will contain a gaseous uid atsubstantially atmospheric pressure, means to impart a blow to thecontainer while in the above described condition, the blow being ofsucient force to cause gas to rise fromI the carbonated Water and intothe-container headspace to establish a higher pressure in the headspacewhile the surface tension of the upper portion of the liquid contents islow, and means to bodily move the container to the syrup and water afterthe headspace pressure has thus been increased so that bubbling of gasduring such bodily movement will be minimized.

GEORGE w.v NEWTON.

